Movie Review The Flower of Evil

The Flower of Evil (2003) 

Directed by Claude Chabrol 

Written by Claude Chabrol 

Starring Natalie Baye, Benoit Magimel, Bernard Le Coq 

Release Date October 1st 2003

Published April 25th, 2004 

Master director Claude Chabrol first came to prominence during the nouvelle vague, the French new wave of the 1950's and 60's. In his long and illustrious career, Chabrol has directed fifty films. Each of those films mixes death, sex and family in ways that can be funny or disturbing or both. Mr. Chabrol's most recent work is no departure from his usual themes. In its familiarity and the director’s comfort with the material, it is a mellow, acceptable work of art from a master artist.

The Vasseur and Charpin families have a history that goes back more than 60 years. Sons and daughters of each family have married for generations and seem perfectly comfortable with what outsiders would find a more than a little disturbing. It's not just outsiders that have some trouble with this incestuousness, young Francois Vasseur (Benoit Magimel) ran off to America when his attraction to his cousin Michele Charpin (Melanie Doutey) became too much to bare.

It's important to note that the two are not necessarily blood relatives, his father Gerard (Bernard Le Coq) married Michele's mother Anne Charpin (Nathalie Baye) after their respective spouses were killed in a suspicious but little discussed accident. Now Francois has returned to the family mansion to find that his attraction to Michele has not changed and despite his qualms about continuing his family's dubious tradition, he and Michele fall into bed and back in love.

In the film’s opening tracking shot, a shot so long it could make Brian De Palma jealous, we see Michele on her knees crying in one room and a body on the floor in the next room. The story of how that body got there is entirely unexpected and involves the family's eldest and most secretive member, Aunt Line (Suzanne Flon). Aunt Line has witnessed the entire history of the Charpin-Vasseur family and holds every secret. She has watched for years as the families have repeated the same mistakes over and over and there are more to come.

The Flower of Evil has a distinct visual feel that seems like digital video but is in fact more a trick of lighting and film stock. Chabrol deliberately underlights most scenes, using only candlelight when he can get away with it. The lighting and cinematography give the film a timeless feel, it looks like it could exist at any time in history. The film looks as if it could have been made at any point in Chabrol's career because of its themes and look.

The acting is somewhat flat, save for Suzanne Flon as Aunt Line. Flon is elegant and heartbreaking, especially in her voiceovers that lay out the family backstory. Chabrol loves this character and lingers on her dialogue and memories. You expect a flashback but instead Chabrol holds on a close-up of Ms. Flon that is far more powerful than any flashback could possibly be.

The Flower of Evil is one of those films that could not be made in Hollywood. A strange amalgamation of suspense and family drama that doesn't fit neatly into any Hollywood package. The film develops as a straight drama but Chabrol drops in a film score from a Hitchcockian suspense film. It's a device that would quickly be axed by confused Hollywood executives, which of course means it works perfectly. A master stroke from a master director. This film is not on par with Chabrol's best work, which is admittedly some ten or fifteen years past. However, as compared to most of the hacks making films today, it's a terrific film.

Movie Review Flashback

Flashback (2003) 

Directed by Michael Karen 

Written by Michael Karen

Starring Valerie Niehaus, Xavier Hunter, Elke Sommer

Release Date January 1st 2000

Published March 24th, 2003 

I love bad horror films!

There is nothing funnier than a truly inept horror movie with ketchup for blood, goofy camera tricks standing in for special effects and acting that is on par with your local community theater. Unfortunately, truly inept horror movies that willingly except their ineptitude and go ahead anyway are few and far between. Flashback, a German horror movie dubbed into English by our friends at Lions Gate is a truly inept horror film, and it has a few truly hysterical moments.

Jeannette is our heroine, locked away in a mental hospital since the brutal murders of her parents by a serial killer. Now haunted by nightmares Jeannette can no longer recall everything that happened the night her parents were killed. She lives in the asylum by choice, but has now been convinced by her therapist that she is in good enough shape to rejoin the real world. Jeannette's therapist sets her up with a job as a live in French teacher for a group of spoiled rich siblings.

As soon as Jeannette arrives at her new home, strange things begin to happen revolving around Jeannette's visions of the man who killed her parents. The killer used a sickle and wore women’s clothing and suddenly the family's own sickle and one of Jeannette's dresses has gone missing. Of course soon after that, people start dying. Still, don't think you know where this one is going as Flashback has a twist for you.

It's not a great twist and your not likely to be surprised, but the fact that you guess the twist long before the idiots on screen do is part of the fun of bad horror movies. Of course, the best thing about bad horror films however is gruesome, brutal, poorly staged murders and their aftermath. Flashback has a couple of good murders including a girl who's body is dumped in a thresher and her remains are showered on a pair of workers trying to figure out what was jamming the machine. There is also an old woman crushed in the gears of a ski lift. Good times!

Flashback is not a good movie but as bad horror movies go, it's priceless. Ridiculous, forgettable and disgusting, if you like poorly dubbed German horror movies, Flashback is right up your alley.

Movie Review: Finding Neverland

Finding Neverland (2004) 

Directed by Marc Forster

Written by Marc Forster

Starring Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Freddie Highmore, Radha Mitchell, Dustin Hoffman, Julie Christie

Release Date November 12th, 2004

Published November 11th, 2004

James Matthew Barrie was born in Scotland in the late 1800's, moved to London just before the turn of the century, and ran in the circle of a number of well-known writers, including H.G Wells, P.G Wodehouse, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to name a few. Though Barrie is mainly known for one work in particular, he was arguably the most successful writer in his circle at that time. It is only the passage of time and the gloriousness of his best-known work that leaves so much of his other material forgotten. That one work was the seminal children’s fantasy Peter Pan and how Barrie invented this fantastic fairy tale is the subject of Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp and directed by Marc Forster.

Coming off the tremendous failure of his latest play, writer J.M Barrie takes a walk in the park with his dog. As he sits on a bench attempting to find a new story to tell, Barrie meets the Davies’ family. George (Nick Roud), Jack (Joe Prospero), Michael (Luke Spill), Peter (Freddie Highmore), and their mother Sylvia (Kate Winslet). Llewellyn Davies takes an immediate liking to Mr. Barrie who entertains them with his imaginative storytelling.

Barrie begins going to the park every day to play with the boys and spend time with Sylvia. This, not surprisingly, causes trouble with his wife Mary (Radha Mitchell) as well as with Sylvia's mother Mrs. Du Maurier (Julie Christie) who worries what the unusual relationship will do to her daughter’s social standing as well as to her own.

Despite the tensions, Barrie can't stay away because the children have inspired him to write what will go on to be his masterpiece. While spending time with the Davies, Barrie begins to indulge a fantasy he has carried with him since he was a child: A story about pirates, Indians, fairies, and a place called Neverland. Even as real life grows more dramatic, the fantasy he's writing gets more and more fantastical.

Depp is extraordinary. In Finding Neverland, he has yet another of his lovable oddballs. Only this time, as opposed to his Jack Sparrow in Pirates of The Caribbean or his nutty writer in Secret Window, this character is both odd and believably dramatic. You believe that this character was this unusual but still a very real person. Indeed much of the script is historically accurate to the life of J.M Barrie and his relationship with the Davies family. What is unclear is how much of the odd behavior of the character is from Depp or from what was known of the real J.M Barrie. Either way it still works.

Director Marc Forster, with the help of cinematographer Roberto Schaefer and production designer Gemma Jackson, creates a world that is a perfect balance of fantasy and reality. They manage to illustrate J.M Barrie's reality and a believable illusion of his spectacular imagination. Writer David Magee, working from source material based on a play by Alan Knee, crafts a terrific script that builds from somewhat mundane at the start to beautifully moving by the films climax.

It's hard to believe that Forster's previous directing credit was the gritty, hard bitten Monster's Ball. But it's not hard to believe that just as he led Halle Berry to an Oscar in Monster's Ball he has led Johnny Depp to the possibility of one. In fact everything about Finding Neverland, from Depp's performance to Forster’s direction, Kate Winslet and Julie Christie's tremendous supporting work and finally the cinematography and production design, looks Oscar quality.

Documentary Review Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11

Directed by Michael Moore

Written by Documentary

Starring Michael Moore, George W. Bush

Release Date June 25th, 2004

Published June 24th, 2004

Say you have a job that pays you a coupla hundred grand a year. It's a good job, well respected. Now let's say you have outside interests, investments that stand to make yourself, members of your family and your friends more than a billion dollars but it requires that you do things in your job that are somewhat less than ethical, immoral even. Is it not fair to ask where your loyalty lies? That is one of the central questions of Michael Moore's brilliant and scathing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, a title that implies the temperature at which freedom burns.

The above question asked more specifically is posed to the Bush administration and it's supporters. The President, his family and friends have and continue to, benefit from investments with Saudi businesses that have at least vague, often provable links to terrorists. Those investments make them more than a billion dollars while the American people only pay George W. Bush 400 grand per year. If Bush pushes foreign and domestic policies in specific directions, those investments are likely to pay off bigtime. So all that stands between corruption of the highest office and the ethical wielding of Presidential power is the word of George W. Bush. Sorry, but that is not good enough for me.

There is far more to Fahrenheit 911 than the above example. Things such as the flight that carried Osama Bin Laden's family out of the United States after September 11th 2001 without so much as a Law and Order style interrogation. The flight, arranged at the highest levels of our government left the country a week after Osama Bin Laden had attacked America, his family is allowed to leave the country without even being asked where Osama might be hiding.

Conservatives want to talk about Michael Moore's timeline of events after 9/11 and the opening of the skies to commercial and in this case private aircraft. Moore's timeline is in fact correct. What conservatives can't explain is how Muslims with an obvious tie to Osama Bin Laden, they are family for pete's sake, are allowed to leave a week after the tragedy, while other Muslims with no ties to Bin Laden were being held for six months to year until the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security were absolutely certain there were no terrorist ties.

Oh did I mention the Bin Laden's were one of the families that the Bush's have their money tied up with? Another sick irony exposed by Michael Moore in this film is how the Bin Laden families investments in American defense contractors made the family large sums of money as America built up toward it's military hunt for Osama and the subsequent war in Iraq.

Speaking of the war, Michael Moore has a few important things to say about Iraq. Recycled news footage shows just some of the innumerable contradictory statements that the administration made in order to make its case for war. The film also goes to Iraq and using never before seen video shows our soldiers, injured, disillusioned and angry, but also doing their job with bravery and commitment to the cause. They aren't sure what that cause is, but they do it anyway.

The finale of the film follows a mother from Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan named Lila Lipscomb. Ms. Lipscomb was a supporter of the war but letters from her son and his eventual death in combat changed her mind. She goes to Washington wishing to ask what it was her son died for. This is one of the film’s most powerful moments, one where you wish Moore might turn away, turn the camera off. However, when you think about it, Lila Lipscomb can't turn the camera off. Camera or no camera, her pain is there and that pain is what Moore captures and the fact that Lila Lipscomb is not the only mother who is mourning a son.

The film’s biggest headline grabbing sequence shows those infamous seven minutes after the second plane hit the trade center and it became clear America had been attacked. Those seven minutes in which President Bush sat there in that Florida classroom listening to a kid read a book about a goat. Seven minutes captured on a video camera by the teacher of the class, not the media. Bush sits and looks powerless, lost, far less than the leader of the free world.

This is one of the most fascinating and powerful works of documentary art I have ever seen. It's also quite funny as well, which can be somewhat disorienting as occasionally during the film a funny, ironic moment is followed or preceded by something important or meaningful. That temporary disorientation is nothing compared to the feelings I had after the film which take a while to process and put into words. I am truly blown away by this film, not that I'm the least bit surprised that George W. Bush is a corrupt liar who manipulates his office for the betterment of his and his associate’s wallets. That I knew. What shocks me is how there are still so many that want this guy re-elected.

Movie Review Eye of God

Eye of God (1997) 

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson

Written by Tim Blake Nelson

Starring Nick Stahl, Martha Plimpton, Kevin Anderson, Hal Holbrook, Richard Jenkins, Margo Martindale 

Release Date October 17th, 1997 

Published July 13th, 2003 

In his relatively short career as a director, Tim Blake Nelson has shown a fascination with tragedy. In The Grey Zone it was the horror of the Holocaust. In ”O” it was teen violence by way of Shakespeare. And in Nelson's very first feature, Eye of God, it was a town in Oklahoma that seemed bathed in tragedy from economic depression to domestic abuse to suicide. Made with the help of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute in 1997, Eye of God was the first indication that the actor had the eye of a director.

Set sometime in the 1980's Eye of God centers on the small town of Kingfish, Oklahoma. A town suffering though a major economic downturn that has people moving away at the rate of a family a week. Into this tragic situation comes a former convict, Jack Stillings (Kevin Anderson). He has come to Kingfish to meet his prison pen pal, a young waitress named Ainsley Dupree (Martha Plimpton). At first Ainsley has cold feet and thinks of leaving but Jack convinces her to stay and that night they have their first date.

Running parallel to Jack and Ainsley's story is that of Tom Spencer (Nick Stahl) who's mother committed suicide, leaving him with his overbearing Aunt and with thoughts of taking his own life. When Tom is found wandering along the side of the road covered in blood, it's obvious he has been involved in something awful. Unfortunately, a shell-shocked Tom is unable to speak and can't tell anyone what happened.

As we learn from a voiceover provided by Hal Holbrook, who also plays the sheriff of Kingfish, Jack and Ainsley's story is being recounted in flashback, while Tom's story takes place in the present. The film shifts backwards and forwards much like Brian Singer's Usual Suspects. The time shifts in Eye of God are signaled by overlapping sounds and static camera shots. The camera pans slowly away from the characters to some various image as another begins to speak or a phone rings or a door slams. It's not a new approach but for a first time director it was a challenging choice and one that Nelson carries off very well.

The script, also written by Nelson, is part mystery, part character study. Unfortunately, the mystery unravels well before the film is over. It becomes clear which character is guilty and that takes some of the punch out of the film’s ending. What the ending does have though is well-acted tragedy that Martha Plimpton and Nick Stahl really hit home. Stahl's final scene is a real heartbreaker and shows the potential that he is finally beginning to live up to some six years later. It's a wonder we don't see more of Martha Plimpton, who has always turns in an effective performance in whatever she is in, even the God awful 100 Cigarettes.

The film’s only real problem is it's leading man Kevin Anderson. A true straight to video legend, Anderson evinces an east coast attitude even as he's supposed to be playing a down home Midwesterner. His portrayal done with a hint of bad Midwest accent turn Jack into a redneck caricature, a hypocritical bible thumper who never for a moment fools the audience into sympathizing with him.

As artful as Eye of God is, it's not entertaining. It's just sad. I loved the performances by Stahl and Plimpton and Tim Blake Nelson's risky directing style. However, the film’s sadness is overwhelming. When the mystery falls apart just past the half way point, the audience is left with nothing but the tragedy. That and Anderson's performance keep Eye Of God from rising to the level of Nelson's follow up features “O” and The Grey Zone, but that is to be expected from a first feature.

Movie Review: Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days (2004) 

Directed by Frank Coraci

Written by David Titcher 

Starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cecile de France, Jim Broadbent, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Release Date June 16th, 2004 

Published June 15th, 2004 

History can be unkind to a movie. Take Mike Todd's immense vanity production 1956's Around The World In 80 Days. The film was the most extravagant and expensive production of it's time and was awarded Best Picture, beating Giant and The Ten Commandments. However, ask most critics about the film and you get a different picture altogether. The film is a God-awful mess for the most part.

Still it's a well-known title and has the Jules Verne name to back it up and thus we have a remake on our hands. Sure, it doesn't have the extravagance of original film but it does have the charm the previous film lacked. And there is a lot to be said for charm.

Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) is not one of those “head in the clouds” types and he's not a dreamer. He's just a scientist with faith in man's ability to accomplish any task. With his sometimes-unusual inventions, he pushes the boundaries of known human limits and pushes the patience of Britain's club of top scientists, led by Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent). Fogg's boundless imagination has yet to invent anything that impresses Lord Kelvin. In fact, Kelvin does all he can to prevent Fogg from becoming a full-fledged member of the club.

It is fate then that Fogg should meet a would-be thief who calls himself Passepartout (Jackie Chan), which is French-Chinese or so he explains. Passepartout, unknown to Fogg, has just robbed the bank of England but it's not what you think. Passepartout was merely retrieving an ancient artifact that was stolen from his village by the vial General Fang (Karen Mok) and sold to Lord Kelvin. While evading the police, Passepartout hides out at Fogg's mansion pretending to be a valet sent over by a service. It is Passepartout who hatches the 80 days bet as a way of getting Fogg to transport him back to China to return the artifact called The Jade Buddha.

The wager is thus: if Fogg can circumnavigate the globe in less than 80 days then Lord Kelvin will step down and name Fogg head of the Royal Academy of Science. However, if Fogg fails he must never invent again. With the wager in place we are off on a wild ride around the world with Passepartout being chased by the Chinese army of General Fang and both being pursued by the bumbling, Brit Inspector Fix (Ewan Bremner).

The guys aren't alone though. In France, they are joined by a sexy French painter Monique La Roche (Cecille De France) who basically exists as a function of the plot. After all what adventure movie doesn't have a love interest? It's in the movie rulebook so she's in the movie. It helps that she is easy on the eyes and quick with her spirited wit. Monique has an immediate attraction to Phileas who’s somewhat clueless, again, as the plot would have it.

Okay, we are not breaking new ground here and not just because this is a remake. There are a number of contrivances and shortcuts. This was after all directed by Adam Sandler's in house director Frank Coraci, so what else would you expect?

Still, the film does have a joyous spirit to it. It's funny and at times even exciting, especially Jackie Chan who has never been better. Some have said that Jackie Chan has lost a step but I didn't notice. If he's being helped by computers, wires or stunt doubles, it's well covered up and his stunt choreography is as good as it's ever been. Keep an eye out for his bench fighting scene against General Fang's men and the Statue of Liberty fight, two terrific, exciting fight scenes. Chan can also mug with the best of them and here he takes on an almost silent movie hero vibe as his face contorts into all sorts of exaggerated emotions. His facial expressions make up for his still nearly unintelligible accent.

Sadly, the wonderful Steve Coogan who was so memorable in 24 Hour Party People never really comes to life in this film. Coogan's Phileas Fogg is entirely too straight-laced and uptight to be interesting. His main emotions stem from his constant need to keep track of time. The rare scenes where he does spark are the romantic moments with the lovely Cecille De France, who has enough energy and spark for the both of them. She looks as if the French have cloned Brittany Murphy and given her an accent, and like Murphy, it's her boundless spirit that makes her so sexy.

As a family movie, Around The World in 80 Days will try the patience of young children with it's few dead spots. However, once Chan has some butts to kick the kids and some of the parents will be very entertained. Try and forget the original film and especially forget Jules Verne who deserves better and has yet to see his work fully realized onscreen. Around The World in 80 Days is not for purists or nitpickers, it is simply a brainlessly entertaining piece of pop candy.

Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 

Directed by Michel Gondry 

Written by Charlie Kaufman

Starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson

Release Date March 19th, 2004

Published March 18th, 2004 

Jim Carrey's attempts to move into “legitimate acting" are often maligned even before they are seen, even by people who call themselves fans. It seems that whenever someone leaves their comfortable, often-mediocre niche we Americans have set aside for them. We go out of our way to shove them back in with harsh and often unfair conjecture. Jim Carrey is a very obvious victim of this niche society.

His latest attempt to escape his niche is the Charlie Kaufmann scripted Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey plays a somber, sweet, romantic lost soul while Kaufmann's script provides the weirdness that Carrey usually provides with his physical schtick.

Carrey is Joel Barish who one day decides to blow off work and take a train to his favorite beach. Nevermind that its winter. On the train ride back, Joel meets Clementine (Kate Winslet), an acid-tongued wild child with an obvious sweetness beneath her punk veneer. They begin a tentative flirtation that is about to lead to Joel's bed when suddenly the opening credits roll and the film begins again.

From there, we are lost in a time warp of Joel's memories and sadness. After Joel and Clementine broke up, Clementine went to a place called Lacuna Corp and had all of her memories of Joel erased. Out of spite, Joel goes to Lacuna to do the same to her. With the guidance of Lacuna's founder Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) and his staff, Joel is told that all of his relationship can be eliminated with a procedure that is technically brain damage, but is only “on par with a night of heavy drinking.”

Joel agrees to the procedure, which is to take place in his apartment while he sleeps. A pair of Lacuna technicians (Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood) come to Joel's apartment after he's asleep and spend the night erasing his memory. Once Joel is actually undergoing the process, he realizes there are some memories of Clementine he does not want to give up. His fight to save some of those good memories is the thrust of the plot.

Who doesn't have a relationship that they would consider erasing from their memory? For me it would be Michele, my high school girlfriend. We were together for three years as a couple and several years as friends afterwards. We loved and we hated in almost equal measure the entire time we've known each other. For all of the pain that she caused me and I caused her there are a number of really good times that I would not be willing to give up. That is the central theme of the film and the way it's explored on the screen is not just the film projecting emotion on to the audience. Rather, the audience is a participant in the emotion.

The film is not exactly as straightforward as I describe it. Writer Charlie Kaufmann and director Michel Gondry have a number of unique twists and turns that make Eternal Sunshine an amazing, mind-bending experience. It's an old school science-fiction storytelling device using technology, in this case a rather low-tech technology, to tell a very human story. Sci-fi without aliens or complicated special effects, sci-fi just used to tell a good story in a very different way.

This is a rather uncomplicated, almost simplistic way to write a relatable story. Painful breakups are a universal experience and Kaufmann uses that universality as a jumping off point to a different way to tell a sad, romantic story. There have been movies that explored the same themes of love and loss. What Kaufmann does is what the best modern screenwriters do, take a conventional idea and twist it. Plots that have been done to death can still be done well if you give them at least one unique twist.

With the help of a Michel Gondry's visual mastery, Charlie Kaufmann found more than one unique twist he could give to the love and loss story, the romantic comedy and the sci-fi picture. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a film that should be shown in film classes for years to come as inspiration for original ideas from traditional sources.

For Jim Carrey, this is yet another brilliant performance that will go unnoticed. The film is unlikely to make many waves at the box office and despite positive critical notice, the March release of the film dooms its Oscar hopes. Carrey can still take heart however in the one truth of great art. It's never appreciated in it's own time. Maybe years from now someone will dig this film out of a vault with barely a memory of Carrey's schtick and discover Carrey's talent.

The Cave (2005) – A Soggy, Sinking Creature Feature

     By Sean Patrick Originally Published: August 27, 2005 | Updated for Blog: June 2025 🎬 Movie Information Title:   The Cave Release Dat...